People Speaking: 7

London Transport

You know, believe it or not,
jə nəʊ, bəˈliːv ɪt | ɔː ˏnɒt [1]

you got a funny kind of resemblance
ju gɒt ə ˈfᴧni kaɪnd əv rɪˏzembləns | [2]

to a bloke I once knew in Shoreditch.
tu ə `bləʊk aɪ wᴧns ˏnjuː | ɪn `ʃɔːdɪʧ. [3]

Well actually he lived in Aldgate
wel `ˏ ӕkʧəli | i lɪvd ɪn `ɔːlgeɪt. [4]

I was staying with a cousin in Camden Town.
ˈaɪ wə ˈsteɪŋ|wɪð ə `kᴧzn| ɪn kӕmdən `taʊn. [5]

His old Mum was still living at the Angel.
ɪz ˈəʊld ˈmᴧm | wə stɪl lɪvɪŋ ət ði `eɪnʤl. [6]

All the buses passed right by the door.
ɔːl ðə ˎbᴧsɪz pɑːst ˈraɪt | baɪ ðə ˎdɔː. [7]

You could get a 38, 581,
ju kə(d) ged ə ˈθɜːtiˏeɪt| ˈfaɪv eɪt ˏwᴧn| [8]

30, 38A...
ˊθɜːti| ˈθɜːti eɪt ˏeɪ | [9]

Take her down the Essex Road
teɪk ə daʊn ði ˈesɪks ˏrəʊd | [10]

to Dalston Junction next to no time.
tə ˈdɔːlstən ˏʤᴧŋʃn| ˈneks tə `nəʊ taɪm. [11]

I very much admired the way this actor produced a delicately suggested effect of Cockney voice quality while keeping all his sound segments within General British possibilities.

The omissions of the /d/ from Aldgate and the /k/ from Junction, the /ɪ/ from staying and the /z/ from was in line 8 are all completely normal GB.

That last one dissolved the was/were contrast! As for the /d/ of could in line 8 it's probably not there but it's one of the many things about which one can't be sure.

The first word of all is a weakform of you that's perfectly ordinary GB but EFL users shd note that it's not employed clause-finally in polite usage.

There's nothing odd about showing get as /ged/ in line 8: it's not so much that it can be said to be indisputably either /t/ or /d/ but that here the distinction between them is neutralised.

Note that isolated numbers above 100 are spoken in groups of digits 1 to 9 or less often as eg "five-eighty-one". "Five hundred and eighty one" wd sound elaborate or pompous etc.

This little monologue comes from Harold Pinter's play  The Caretaker.